


Smarter than Me

by JadeElite



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 23:44:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeElite/pseuds/JadeElite
Summary: Archiving my old Rick x Reader fics





	1. Chapter 1

“M..morty stop staring at the neighbor’s a..ass and help me unload these eels.”

You pull the last grocery bag from the back seat of the car and straighten your back. When you turn towards the nearby house, the teenager looks at the ground, shoves his hands in his pockets and shuffles into the garage.

“Geez Rick… did…did you have to say that so loud?”

Shaking you head you shut the car door with your hip and carry the bags into the house. “Sarah did you finish unpacking recording equipment?” Carrying the bags past half unpacked boxes into the kitchen, you become aware of a rapid creaking above you, and conclude that your housemates did not finish setting up the studio. So once the refrigerated items have been put away you shuffle through breakfast leftover in-and-out burger wrapper son the kitchen table until your tablet is uncovered. Sighing, you wipe the grease from the screen and slip outside by way of the garage. After a few minutes you find and finagle the lawn chair out from the unsorted junk in the back of the garage and carrying it out to the front yard. You open it out into the grass, sit in the sun, and open your tablet to something to read.

Sometime later the neighbor boy braves the walk across the property line and approaches you. “H.Hey! What are you, what are you reading? You looked like, looked really interested and I was curious.” He’s shaking like a leaf, you smile patiently, he can’t help being a hormonal teen, it’s a little weird but there’s no point in embarrassing him over something he can’t control.

“It’s a scientific journal from an institute in Berlin about their breakthroughs in managed nuclear fission through the use of plasma barriers. Their engineers are designing a reactor that could….” You stop as you practically hear the gears painfully turning in this head. “It’s just an article about a breakthrough in the energy crisis.”

“Oh, oh wow that’s…that’s cool. Uh, Berlin, that’s in Germany right? So…so was the article translated..?” Poor kid is really grasping for some kind for conversation topic.

“No actually. I’ve studied German since I was little so I speak and read it pretty well. Swedish too, and Chinese. Plus a little Russian but I only took a semester of that in college. “Your parents started shoving other languages down the throat of their ‘prodigal’ child the moment you had the basics of English. Morty’s eyes widen in shock and he stammers for a bit, not sure how to respond. The only thing you miss about being around your parent’s friends is the intelligent and stimulating conversation. When the Smiths had introduced themselves when you and your friends moved in Mrs. Smith had told you about her father’s inventing and science in the garage, and you had considered engaging him in conversation. That ended with you having the strongest urge ever to knock out an old man. He made it painfully clear that he didn’t give a shit and was just going to assume that all four of his new neighbors were dumbasses.

Before he can muster out another sentence Morty is called back over to his house by his mother. You wave at her as she loads a suitcase into their car, she smiles and waves once her hands are free. After taking a minute to giggle at the ridiculous getup her husband is wearing you resume reading the journal. 

The Smiths are nice, you look forward to being their neighbor, the kid will get bored eventually so that should stop being awkward. Their daughter Summer loves Sarah, probably because she mentioned that she part time’s as a DJ at a club downtown. You haven’t actually gotten to interact with Jerry much, so you aren’t sure what his opinion on his new neighbors is. Beth likes you because you were interested in her job, you had studied some basic veterinary work when you were in high school when you were still trying to figure out what you were going to do with your life, but had never learned about horses, your love for learning led to you asking her questions about horse anatomy for a while. Then there’s Rick, and well his feelings have already been made clear, but as long as you avoid him there shouldn’t be problems. But things never really go how you want them to.


	2. Chapter 2

You hold a half smoked cigarette between two fingers and lean against the closed garage door. You watch is confusion as humans and strange creatures arrive at the Smith household next door. You take note of the method of their arrivals, a little too interested in the construction of the ships some arrive in. You consider taking up Summer’s invitation she had given you and your housemates early that evening, after her parents had left for their ‘Titanic adventure” vacation. She had mostly directed the invitation at Sarah, but she was polite enough to extend it to all of you as well. Sarah had already left to head over, looks like the recording equipment won’t be set up any time tonight. You had been wanting to get some dialogue recorded tomorrow but that’s not happening. Her boyfriend’s not the party type though, you glace up at the window of their room and see Mark setting up his computer at the desk stationed there. Her brother Dillion isn’t going to be home for a few more days, he was recording a character for a larger indie game company in the city this week, his paycheck is how we could afford to split a house in this market.

You see the old man open the front door to welcome some guests, wearing a huge smile and clearly drunker than usual. You realize this is the first time you had seen him smile, he usually came into or out of that garage wearing a scowl or a distant glare. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket and put the cigarette between your lips to pull the phone out and hold it with both hands. It’s Sarah. 

‘Yo, there’s a couple aliens hear that are talking my ear off about their culture and shit, I’m about to get sneak off to go find the drinks but I thought you might be interested in learning about alien FUCKING CULTURES, cause I know that’s your thing.’ That’s what you can decipher at least, looks like she was using talk to text and the majority of it is gibberish.

You move the cigarette back to your hand and pocket your phone. You decide that maybe this party will be interesting after all. Dropping the smoking paper onto the driveway, crushing and smothering it with the heel of your shoe, you start walking over to the house, observing the various beings that are still arriving. As you near the front door, carefully avoiding the acid eaten garage door that has somehow managed to be reattached to the house, Rick notices you, he’s still at the front door talking to somebody, sneers a bit and leads his conversation partner inside and slams the front door. Realizing you aren’t welcome, you take off your hoodie, revealing the party clothes you had put on earlier in case you decided to go, you’ll admit that you’re capable of looking great if you try, and toss the old thing back into your yard to be picked up later. With a strong resolve you walk towards the front door, fully intending to learn about alien culture and if you can, fuck up the old bastard’s evening. 

You see Sarah through the window and she sees you, waves excitedly, a drink in one hand, and grabs Summer, who she was apparently talking to, and drag her in the direction of the door. By the time you reach the entrance to the house the door is being opened by the teen girl, Sarah immediately grabs your hand and drags you inside.

“Hey Summer, sorry for intruding but it looks like half the galaxy is here anyways so I figured you wouldn’t mind?” You looks around, taking in the people and others loitering about.

“These are all my grandpa’s friends but yeah it’s fine. Just don’t embarrass me, this party is so I can get in with the cool kids and I don’t want it to get ruined.” Summer looks over at a group of humans who seem to be thoroughly enjoying the party. You raise an eyebrow.

“That’s why you party? Jeez you’re going to be disappointed when you go to your first frat party in college.” You start walking towards the kitchen. “Sarah, be an absolute best friend and show me where you got that drink, then point me in the direction of the most talkative alien.”

While Sarah is helping you get your hands on a drink the house begins to shake, you grab the counter to stay standing and close your eyes. When you open them again and look out the window, your breath catches in your throat. A world that I could never imagine in your loopiest sleep-deprived all-nighter concept sketch sessions lays outside the window. 

“Lets…find…something stronger to drink.” Sarah stutters and reaches for something much, much stronger that what you were about to have. You elect to stick with the beer, you don’t want to be sober to deal with this but you figure you’ll need at least a little mental functionality to make it through the night. You do go ahead and drink what you had poured already and refilled before you go anywhere.

You stumble, a little dizzy and confused, towards the living room, on the other side of the porch door you see the Summer, Morty, and Rick arguing outside. You chug your shitty tasting beer and weave between guests to reach the door just as Summer and old man come back inside, and you can see Morty heading off into the unknown with a couple people you don’t recognize. You bump into Rick as you try to get past them to get outside, he spills his drink on your shoulder, probably staining your shirt for eternity, whatever the hell was in there it definitely was beer, alcoholic, but a lot stronger than what Sarah is drinking in the kitchen.

“Aw geez l..look at what you did! Now URP I have to to go get myself another drink!” He shoves past you to head back into the party. But stops and looks at you. “Don’t..urp.. don’t go out there unless you want to be eaten by something.” You falter but after a moment you step outside. Your expression can probably best be described as ‘the dude from Jurrasic Park seeing the dino’s at the fucking park for the first time’ kind of dumbstruck look. “Don’t start freaking out it’ll kill the mood, just URP just don’t.” You take a deep breath, trying to determine what’s going to be first verbalized thought. Rick sighs and starts to walk away.

“FUCK YOU DAD I TOLD YOU LIFE CAN EXIST ON A PLANET THAT’S THIS CLOSE TO ITS STAR. IT’S FUCKING GRAVITY ISN’T STOPPING THE FORMATION OF A BREATHABLE ATMOSPHERE BIIIITCH.” You feel a tug on the back of your collar, and you’re pulled back inside just a large tentacle strikes where you were standing a moment prior.

“Yeah yeah fantastic urp, do you want to get eaten? Because usually people don don’t want to get eaten.” Rick pauses, shuts the porch door, and looks at you. “Wait the fuck did you say?” 

“My idiot of a father, who somehow managed to become a NASA engineer, thinks the gravitational pull of a star can prevent the formation atmosphere on its planets. I showed him mathematically he was wrong but he said my ‘evidence is only hypothetical and I have to properly understand the’ basically he told me I was wrong because obviously he is right since there’s no physical evidence to prove him wrong but I am fucking looking at the physical evidence bitch!” You stare out at the alien planet, maybe a little too excited, but a little terrified as well.

You spend the rest of the night drinking maybe a few too many shitty beers and talking to every alien who is willing to talk about their home worlds. Occasionally you have the displeasure of dealing with aliens and humans alike that are just a little too friendly and Sarah has to rescue you from the night going in an unpleasant direction. You have a few more run-ins with Rick and Summer through the night. Summer is quite uninterested in your enthusiasm and is quick to back off, but you catch Rick trying to hide a sense of intrigue every time you start to ramble off on something fascinating you just learned.

By the time Rick has transported the house and the guests back to earth you’re maybe a little too drunk and a little too excited, but you realize it’s morning and Sarah’s parents are going to be stopping by the house in a few hours to help with unpacking. As a mass of people and aliens leave the house, you locate Sarah, and pull her out of the group by the arm.

“Whaaat I wash just going to go hand with these guysh, come on it’ll be fun.” Sarah leans on you, tired and drunk. She’s been your designated responsible friend, and you’ve been her’s, looks like tonight it’s your turn.

“Come on Sarah, you want your parents to see you totally shit faced?” You watch other guests leave so you don’t get turned around trying to get back home. Morty walks by grumbling and carrying a trash bag, he doesn’t even notice the two of you standing there, the kid looks royally pissed. “Thanks for inviting us, the party was great.” You call out towards Summer and her grandfather as you guide your friend to the front door once the mass of guests have left. They grumble something in response, and you catch Rick giving you a weird look that makes your spine tingle. You sling Sarah’s arm over your shoulder once you’re out the door and let her lean on you while walking her to the house.


	3. Chapter 3

By the time you’re back in the house you’re practically carrying Sarah, luckily her boyfriend is coming down the stairs.

“Hey come get your girlfriend sobered up for her parents I’m going to bed.” You carefully move her into his gentle loving arms and he guides her to the kitchen.

“Do I want to know why the neighbor’s house vanished for a few hours?” He asks, turning his head back to you. You just shake your head, and start walking up the stairs. For a second you recall the hoodie is still lying in the yard, and stop at your bedroom door to consider whether or not you want to go get it. Ultimately you decide ‘Fuck it’ and enter the room. You stumble past boxes, including the one with your bedframe in it, and head straight to the mattress on the floor. But long before you reach it you trip over your own two dumb drunk feet and head face first towards the floor.

-

A few months into the time freeze Rick was bored. The grandkids were sleeping but he was just drinking in the garage, after spending a few hours fixing the object Morty had broken during the party. At this point he remembered the girl who had been at the party that had actually caught his interest intellectually, something that has never, once, happened. He was used to people freaking out about space “oh this is so cool it’s just like in the movies!” Generally frivolous excitement from the mouths of nice pieces of ass he brought out to impress them and get laid, worked every time. But this chick was actually interested in how the hell all of this worked, she had come to him more than once asking him to explain how the entire house had been transported. At one point he threw a way over the head of an average person explanation at her, and was surprised to see, actual comprehension on her face, and got not ‘too’ stupid questions back in response. 

Rick remembered Morty asking about nuclear fission, and when he asked why the hell he would be asking about such a primitive form of energy and the kid said something about the neighbor girl reading science journals in German and he wanted to try and talk to her about it and know what he’s talking about. At first he told Morty the girl was probably trying to get him to leave, but at one point in the evening he had overheard her discussing fission reactors with a few of his ‘friends’ and actually sounding competent. At the time she was also trying to curb her housemate’s drinking by keeping her in the conversation. The chick started going on about ‘inventring sketchmatics’ that her friend keeps, so out of pure boredom he decides to go check that out.

After checking the kids were still sleeping Rick headed out the front door, gives Jerry his usual kick to the balls he’ll never feel, then turned in the direction of smarty mc.smarty pants house. As he was walking through the grass he spotted a familiar ratty hoodie lying on the ground. The party was the first time in the week since they moved in next door that he had seen the girl not wearing the thing, and Rick was willing to admit to himself that he hoped she’s wear it a little less. He picked it up, shook the grass off it, and caught a silver lighter at the last second as it fell out of a pocket. He shrugged, pocketed the lighter and slug the hoodie over his shoulder.

The front door was half open, he supposed they had just gotten home when Rick froze things over and were too drunk to close it all the way. He entered the home, its’ a mirrored layout of the Smith house so he could figure out his way around. First he navigated through still packed boxes to the kitchen to find the girl he isn’t looking for sitting at the kitchen table, face planted into the hard wood, and her ‘boyfriend’ leaning on the counter next to a coffee machine frozen mid brewing. He grabbed a mug off the counter, the half full coffee pot, and filled the mug. After he put the pot on the counter, rather than back under the machine, he took his flask from his lab coat and dumped the contents into the coffee, nearly overfilling the mug.

While he drank the coffee Rick headed up the stairs, glancing at portrait photo’s already hung on the wall on the way up. Family pictures of the girl’s housemates, a few photos of her hanging with them, but her family is absent from the images. He checked the rooms, not knowing which she had claimed as hers. What would be Morty’s room is filled with boxes but did not look like anybody was living in it yet, and he remembered his daughter mentioning something about how they would have a fourth housemate by the end of the.... ‘month.’ The room that would be Summer’s is filled with part unpacked boxes and clearly the sex den of the horny couple who’s coffee he had just fucked with.

So on to Beth and Jerry’s ‘room’ Rick went. For a moment he wondered how this girl had ended up with the master bedroom. But he also didn’t really care enough to pursue the thought. The first thing he did on entering the room was double over laughing, for a solid three minutes. She was frozen mid trip, arms stuck in a drunken flail. After calming down he noticed that her head was going straight for the edge of her desk, and with a resigned sigh he took a minute to adjust her position so she wouldn’t die the moment he unfroze time. Afterwards he tossed the hoodie onto the desk and took a look around the room, there’s still work to do, but it’s the most unpacked area in the entire house. With no consideration for his neighbor’s privacy he began to dig around the room, looking for these “sketchmatics” the housemate had been talking about.

What Rick found was a massive box filled with dozens of sketchbooks (of just about every type of paper from tracing to watercolor, from graph to plain old paper) and portfolio folders. The covers were labeled with years and titles. ‘Spring 2006 - Summer 2007’ ‘March 2010’ ‘1995 – 2002’ ‘Concept Sketch Work’ ‘Character Designs’ ‘Inventions?’ were a few of these titles and dates. He scoffed at the art books and tossed the aside carelessly. While drinking the booze coffee he sat and started flipping through the ‘Inventions?’ book, it wasn’t dated, but the dates on each page indicated she had started this one in early 2014, it was nearly full, but not completely. He half admitted that they were actually pretty good, smart even. The book was filled with pages of designs for more efficient cars, safer planes, engines, even a couple rocket designs. They were well put together, and probably better than anything he’d seen come out of humanity’s scientific ‘community’ in….ever? At first he dismissed them, they weren’t anything special. But still the a few ‘days’ later he found himself coming back to look at more.

Between then and when Rick unfroze time a month or so later he made a habit of heading over to the neighbor’s house. The first thing he would do is pull some kind of dick move to fuck over the residents of the house once things unfroze, then head upstairs to smartypants room. He flipped through every book, every folder, it never ceased to amaze him the innovated tech this girl had come up with, what the hell was she doing with her life if she was smart enough to do this. But he didn’t think anything really special about her until he found the book labeled “Hypotheticals” at the bottom of the box. 

He began flipping through this book, and Rick found himself, for first time in a long time, flabbergasted. The book was filled with designs that posited the existence of a material or substance that has never been discovered, but could plausibly exist. Not only were these designs incredibly creative and well crafted, all these materials she was suggesting existed, he had found in his travels, he used regularly in his science. Maybe this kid is smart, maybe.

On the last day of frozen time, before the kids woke up he found himself sitting on her mattress on the floor reading the last book, he had tossed aside the oldest one, ‘1995- 2002’ and figured out why this girl wasn’t doing anything worthwhile with her brain. The book started with childish barely legible ideas, kid’s ideas like an ice cream server and doll dresser ups, no real science just ideas. Over the course of the book the sketches developed into decent ideas and he saw the foundations of real science, things well beyond what anything a kid could design. But what caught his attention, was that each page was marked with a bright red pen, notes telling the creator where the science was wrong, why such or such wouldn’t work, and in each corner a grade. Rick had never seen handwriting that he could describe as viscous, at first he didn’t think much of the notes, until he realized that they were the most critical, dickish things he had ever heard directed at a child. The ‘grades’ were never higher than a C, even on the designs that Rick had to admit were good for a seven year old. He even noticed, that especially in the later designs, the notes were just critics for the sake of being a critic. No wonder this girl didn’t do anything with her what he was tempted to call a ‘gift.’ 

Rick sighed, knowing Summer and Morty would probably be up soon, and they had ‘agreed’ to unfreeze time now. So he packed the books away and started to leave, but turned to look at her frozen falling figure. Rolling his eyes he dragged her over to the mattress, so she’d have a soft landing.

-

Floomp

How the hell you managed to land on the mattress you have no idea. You lay face first, drunkenly thinking about the party last night. As you close your eyes and wrap your arms around the soft pillow you kick your shoes off. You’re unconscious within seconds.


	4. Chapter 4

When you’ve awoken from several hours of drunkenness induced loopy dreams the sun is high in the sky. Grumbling you get up and check your phone. “Well there goes what could have been a productive day…” You mutter aloud and stumble to your desk. You stare at the hoodie hanging off the side of your desk, you could have sworn you’d left it in the yard last night, but you suppose Sarah or Mark grabbed it and brought it up. That’s not something they would normally do but it makes sense. You rub your forehead, trying stop the headache you know is coming. After a minute you look around the room, maybe it’s the hangover but you know something’s not right, several boxes are not where you remember them being, and more importantly, the box full of your schematics and concept art is open, and it most certainly wasn’t before. With a yawn you pick up the hoodie and rifle through the pockets, retrieving a pack of cigarettes and….not…your lighter. “Oh…….fuck……FUCK.” You must have left it at the Smith’s house, if somebody took it…Jesus Christ almighty fuck there was going to be a problem. You take the time to change out of your boozy smelling clothes, you consider tossing the shirt stained with Rick’s drink but decide you might as well try to save it.

Once you don’t look hungover, despite the pounding headache that says otherwise, you head downstairs. You don’t see your housemates, and assume Sarah’s parents came and took them to lunch or something, a few of the boxes are unpacked, broken down and leaning on the wall. Once outside the sun makes your eyes burn and you shudder, and visor your face with one hand, then shamble towards the Smith house. The garage door is open, and you catch the tail end of a conversation about “fruity necklaces” and see the Smiths heading into the house, leaving Rick behind. He’s at his work table, shoving three collar looking things into a drawer.

“Yo Sanchez.” You call out, your voice a little creaky, your throat is dry. He looks up at you, way more surprised than you expected him to be, in fact he looks like he’s just been caught murdering somebody. “I think I left my lighter here last night, its silver with a dragon on it?” 

His shoulders relax, and he reaches into the pocket of his lab coat and pulls out the missing lighter. “This what you’re looking for.” You nod in confirmation and step into the garage to retrieve it. “Whaat’s it urp worth to you?” He holds it back and away from you, a sarcastic smirk on his lips.

“Not much, I just like it more than my others.” You lean on the work table, crossing your arms.

“Well I like it too so maybe I’ll uuurp just keep it.” Rick flicks open the top and puts his thumb on the igniter.

“Fine by me, but I still haven’t found my others, not sure if any of them survived the move.” You hold up the pack of cigarettes. “And I was kind of hoping to get a smoke in before I have to get back to unpacking.” 

“Well I urp s..suppose I could light for you.” He clicks the lighter, and before the flame ignites the man is hit with several tens of thousands of volts of electricity, enough to sting way worse than a joy buzzer but not quite the power of a commercial Taser. “MOTHERF.F.F.F.FUCKER” You catch it when he tries to fling it out of the garage.

You hold it up, and light it without issue. “Something wrong old man?” He glares at you, a death stare, and steps towards you menacingly. But you see his curiosity get the better of him, and as he opens his mouth in what you know is to ask a question, you cut him off. “Ignitor completes a circuit, and only it is made of electricity conductive material, so once you click it in you get shocked, quite a nasty shock.” You turn the lighter so a button set into the side in such a way that it’s not noticeable is revealed by the light. “This button makes a second break in the circuit, so it’s still incomplete when you ignite.” You demonstrate again, lighting it, extinguishing, lighting, extinguishing.

“Urp and what kind of purpose is that supposed to serve anyways, its unnecessary.” He tries to grab it out of your hand, but you yank it away with a ‘tsk.’

“Well you kind of just proved that it has a very…amusing purpose.” You start to laugh, but wince as your headache redoubles with your effort.

“Point taken, now unless you left something else here…I’m very busy.” He waves his hands in a shooing motion.

“Nope, this was all I needed.” You pocket the lighter and pack, grinning.

“So you came all the way over here to get you urp lighter so you could get a smoke?” He sneers at you slightly.

“Oh hell no, smoking when I’m hungover makes me puke.” You wave your hand dismissively.

“You fucking piece of…”

“Played ya old man.” You turn round to head out, and are met by the ‘blinding’ light of the sun coming through the garage door. “Fuck” You stumble backwards, covering your eyes with a hand, and of course, you trip over your own two feet, falling backwards. You swear you aren’t usually this clumsy but you also don’t drink too often.

Of course Rick isn’t expecting you to be the biggest clutz to have ever existed, and he’s not expecting you to trip like an idiot. So when normally he would just let you fall on your ass, since he’s right behind you, you slam right into him. He yells a few choice curse words, and because he doesn’t want to end up on his own ass he wraps his arms around you as he braces his legs and stops himself from falling.

“Are you still drunk?! Who the h.heell trips over themselves this much? First in your…” he trails off, realizing he was about to reveal he knew something he should have no way of knowing. He rebalances, you conclude that he smells like whisky, a cinnamonny cologne, and a smell you can’t quite place, something nice…. before your brain registers what he had said. After holding you for maybe two seconds too long he pushes you away while keeping his hands on your shoulder to keep you balanced. “Now can you get ho..urp..me without falling into the street and getting hit by a c..car, or am I going to have to walk you there like a child?”

You stare at him wordlessly, your head swimming. You’re trying to figure out what he had said, but you’re also trying to catch one more whiff of his scent. 

“Walking you home it uurp is then….” He had made the decision that you might be interesting, and didn’t want you dying…stupidly dying, just yet. He turns you around and puts a guiding hand on your back and pushes you forward. It’s not too difficult to get you safely from his garage to your front door, he was careful to stay behind you, in case the hangover got the best of you and you puked on the way over. “You couldn’t have waited until you were sober to come get your lighter, I mean really.” 

“Didn’t want to miss out on the ‘discovery’ of what it did.” You chuckle, and cough.

“Alright I get that. Just don’t come over fucking half brained again I’m not your uurp fucking baby sitter.” He stops at your front door, and steps back. 

“Aaaah you didn’t say don’t come over at all.” You smile for some reason, and open the front door.

“I figured I can’t stop y..you from coming over, Beth seems to like you guys or something. This is as far as I go I’m not fucking tucking you in.” He starts to turn and leave but stops when he realizes your standing completely frozen with the door half open. He wonders if he’s going to actually have to tuck you in.

“Fucking… lilacs….why the hell do you smell like lilacs.” You turn your head to look at him.

“It’s...the stuff Beth uses to do the laundry…” He shakes his head and starts walking away. “Drink some water and go to bed, and don’t get up until you can do so without tripping over your fucking ass.”


	5. Chapter 5

You wake up sweating, your hands gripping your blanket, a heavy feeling of pleasure fading from your lower body. You have the faint memory of the smell of whisky and cinnamon cologne, light blue hair, and a face you hate yourself for seeing in a dream of the nature you just awoke from. You stare into the darkness of your room, trying to calm your breathing, waiting for your body to chill out. When you feel able, you slowly get out of bed, looking out the window at the night. It’s been nearly a week since the party Summer and Rick threw, the one that ended up in space, a week since you royally embarrassed yourself by going to retrieve your lighter when you were still too hungover to walk. The unpacking’s been going well since then, you’re bed’s been built at least, and Dillon arrived and started setting up his room. You spend a minute stretching, trying to clear your mind.

Once you’ve accepted that you aren’t going to be able to relax and fall back asleep, you grab your hoodie off your desk chair and head downstairs. Stopping by the studio on the lower floor you can hear music coming through the door, so you open it quietly and peek in. Sarah looks up from the mixer and turns down the volume.

“Did I wake you up?” She starts reaching for her headphones.

“No no, I was up. You might want to try a having it switch to a lower key at the end there. It’ll fit better with the action going on around the player in the scene.” You start putting your hoodie on. She gives you a thumbs up and you close the door, then head out to the backyard. You step out into the yard, wet grass cold on your bare feet. While you stare upwards at the stars you get a cigarette lit and begin to smoke. You close your eyes and relax your muscles.

But after a few minutes of silence you hear a voice behind you, it’s strange and… alien…sounding. “Human! We are looking for the one named Rick Sanchez! Please direct us to his residence, we have business with him!” You assume they came around the side of the house while you weren’t paying attention. Something about the tone of their voice makes you nervous, like they are trying to sound friendly, but are very angry. But perhaps you are being presumptuous, perhaps that’s just how they talk. Still, you also assume that anybody who has good business with the old man would know where to find him.

“What kind of business do you have with the old coot?” You turn your head to look back at them. There are two, they are massive insectoid like creatures, like mutated flies.

“We think he may know something about the death of a very dear friend of ours! And we were hoping to ask him some questions!” They are standing very close to you, uncomfortably close. You wonder how they managed to get so close without you noticing.

Before you can answer, there is a bright blast of violet light, and one of the aliens falls over dead, it’s head just…gone. You gasp, try to step away, but before you can the one still living grabs you by the arm and holds you to him. You feel something cold pressed to your temple, and you’re spun around to face the Smith’s yard.

“Is harassing neighbor’s your urp, usual fucking way of taking out a target fuckers?” Rick Sanchez is pointing an impressive looking gun at you and the alien, from what you saw before you assume it’s some form of…laser pistol? The fury on his face is indescribable, and perhaps a little surprising.

“Sanchez, Krombopulos Michael is dead and we know he was killed by your ship! Do you have an explanation for that?” The alien’s grip on you is tight. You see Morty cowering behind his grandfather, when the alien speaks his eyes grow wider than usual.

“See what you did now Morty! Because you had to be an uuurp idiot our neighbor is going to get killed, you still feel good about saving that stupid fart?” Rick tries to step towards you, but freezes when the alien presses the gun harder into the side of your head and you hear a charging sound. ”Listen KrKrombopulos whatever, this is a misunderstanding, my grandson can’t drive and crashed into your buddy, it was an acciuurpdent not an assassination.”

“Je..Jeez Rick I told you I didn’t mean for any of this to h.h.happen I was just trying to do the right thing.” Morty looks at you apologetically.

“Likely story Sanchez, but you aren’t exactly the most credible source in the galaxy.” The Krombopulos guy moves you to shield himself better.

“Listen, the girl isn’t going to get you anywhere, what you think I’m just going to turn myuurp myself over to be killed by you because of some neighbor girl. When have I ever given the impression that I give a shit about anybody other than myself?” Rick’s gun is trained right at your head, it’ll pass through you like butter and kill this prick and yourself. You hear it make a similar charging sound as he primes it for a shot. 

“RICK! You can’t she she she hasn’t done anything to deserve this, isn’t there some other way!” Morty grabs at Rick’s arm, stopping him for the moment while he has to shake the kid off.

Mercifully you are still holding your cigarette, you begin to lift the hand holding it. “Hey, can a girl finish her smoke if she’s going to die? One last pleasure?” You glare at Rick, anger burning in your chest. When the alien doesn’t stop you, and Rick nods, you lift it to your lips and breathe it deeply. You take in as much as you can, closing your eyes, and trying to still the shaking of your muscles. Then with determination, you tilt your head back and breath the smoke right into the disgusting face of your captor.

“What are you HACK doing? COUGH COUGH human!” The alien coughs violently, he shakes, the gun lowers as he hacks and coughs like a little bitch. The moment the opening is there, you swing the cigarette hand upwards and plant the burning paper and tobacco into his eye, and your other hand, that was holding your lighter, slams it’s ignitor into the alien’s thigh, giving him a huge shock. As a guttural scream fills the air and his grip on you loosens, you grab his arm, pry it away from your body. You drop the lighter, abandoning it. While you are scrambling to get away there is another violet flash and a burning pain in your arm.

“Fucking hell Sanchez you couldn’t have waited the half second for me to get my ass out of the way?!” You clutch where the blast grazed you, trying to stop the blood, stumbling away from the alien’s corpse. He walks towards you wordlessly, Morty close on his heels. “I’m going to ask what the hell that was all about, and I’m going to get a straight answer out of one of you, and if I don’t I’m kicking you in the balls. Understood?” You say through clenched teeth, squeezing the wound, your hand wet with blood.

Rick grabs your arm below the growing bloodstain and pulls you towards him and your arm up, peeling your hand away, looking closely at the wound. “Let’s get this cleaned up for you.” He mutters. You can see him trying to mask guilt and concern with indifference, and failing.

“O..oh man I’m so sorry about this..thi this is my fault I can’t believe you got hu hurt because of me.” Morty stammers out his apology, then steps out of the way as Rick begins to drag you towards the house and his garage. Morty stares at the blood stain on the hoodie around where Rick is now trying to hold the blood back. “Wow th..that looks like it hurts like…like really bad.”

“I’ve had worse….and I don’t need you cleaning it up, I know how to bandage things up.” You try to pull away but his grip is strong. He looks at you quizzically, your statement revealed a little more than you should have. It does hurt, bad, but you don’t reveal that in your voice, you’re used to hiding pain.

“You’ve urp, had worse than a plasma shot, I doubt that.” Rick says, pulling you into the garage. “Morty, on the shelf over there is a, is a case of vials, I need you to bring me the one with green liquid.” He forces you to sit in his work stool, leans over you, and uses the hand not stopping the bleeding to start unzipping your hoodie for better access to the wound.

“Hey hey no! Come on I can take care of this myself.” You try to pull his hand away from the zipper, but he persists. You don’t have the strength to distract him, and the pain in your arm is becoming unbearable. Soon your hoodie is off, he’s holding your bare arm now, the blood drips down your arm, thick and red. He stops for a second to stare, the thin tank you wear to sleep doesn’t cover much of anything. 

“I I think I got it Rick is it th.this one?” Morty turns back to the two of you and freezes, staring in hormonal induced shock. You sigh. “Uh. Uh. Uh.”

“Goood good good job Morty.” Rick turns and grabs the vial out of Morty’s outstretched hand. For a moment he looks between his grandson and you, seeing his line of sight. “Christ MoMoMorty she’s injured and you’re staring at her boobs! Do.don’t you have any shame uuurp. Go inside.” Morty stammers and tries to defend himself, but bolts for the door and goes into the house.

Rick pulls the stopper from the vial with his teeth and slides his hand down your arm to reveal the bleeding wound. You realize, looking at it now, that it’s much worse than it feels. You wonder for a second if your pain threshold is too high for your own good, but the thought is silenced as Rick pours the green goo onto the wound, and it burns like no pain you have ever felt before. You bite your lip, holding back a scream, stomp your foot on the concrete floor trying to express your pain in silence. He drops the vial, you hear glass shatter on the floor. You can feel you’re his hand come around the back of your head, and he pushes your face into his shoulder, muffling your pained groans. Your skin around the wound crawls, it hurts so much and you feel tears welling up in your eyes. 

“It’ll be over in a minute, urp, just a minute.” Rick’s other hand is still squeezing your arm. You breathe the whisky, cinnamonny cologne and lilac scent off his lab coat, suck in air and whimper as the pain in your arm finally subsides. His grip on your arm loosens, but he still holds your face against his body, you begin to become more aware. The hand on the back of your head is gently, comfortingly, stroking your hair. Once your groans and whimpers have subsided he pushes you away and let’s go of your arm.

“What…was that…?” You turn your head, look at your arm. What you can see under the blood is that what was missing before is returned, as if all that was blasted away grew back, leaving nothing but a scar. It’s like a brown and red blotch, it itches but you’re afraid to touch it.

“Doesn’t uurp matter, you’re healed, don’t worry about it.” Rick picks your hoodie off the ground and offers it to you.

“I’m…too tired to try and get you to answer…” You stand up, supporting yourself with the work table. You push the hoodie away. “Throw it away, it’s ruined now.” You needed a new one anyways. You look at the blood on his hand, watch the way he’s looking at you. “Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to come back and you’re going to tell me what the hell happened.”

“It’s none of your uurp business. You just happened to stumble into the bad side of a stupid Morty decision. But fine, I get the feeling telling you no isn’t going to stop youuurp.” Rick takes a few steps back, giving you the necessary room to leave. You head towards the outside, the cold air hits you like a thousand frozen needles as you get close to the garage door. “Hold on.” You start to turn to him, he’s taking off his lab coat, taking things out of the pockets as he does so. “I don’t want to have to hear you uuurp bitching about a catching cold because I let you walk home like that.” He throws it at you, not giving you the chance to refuse.

“Thank you…for the coat and for…not letting that thing kill me earlier tonight.” You take it, and slip it on, it’s warm and smells like him. It hangs almost to the ground, far too long for you, and you pull the edges closed across your chest.

“I was about to shoot you in the head and you’re thanking me for uurp that?” He opens his flask and drinks from it.

“If you were going to shoot me I’d be dead, but you knew I was going to figure a way out of it, didn’t you?” You smile at him, then head out into the night, towards home. “Oh and I do assume those alien corpses will be gone by the time my housemates get up tomorrow?” You call back at the last moment.

-

Rick sputters on the drink, and watches the girl leave. Part of him liked seeing her in his lab coat, the other part of him was thinking about how she was right. For some dumb fucking reason, he had trusted her to be able to think her way out of the shit show from earlier. He hated to admit it even to himself, but what he had seen in those sketch books, what he’d learned from the way she asks questions and her apparent comprehension of uncomprehendable things, was that she was really fucking smart, smart enough to make him feel something about her. He sneers, shoving the thoughts about her to the back of his mind, no point in thinking about it, she’s going to end up being just as stupid as anybody else, just because she’s got some brains doesn’t make her worth his time. Don’t bother liking her, she’s just going to disappoint him. 

He starts to carry the hoodie towards the trash, then looks at it. He’s tired from a long shitty day and too drunk to stop himself from bringing it to his face and inhaling the smell on it, filling his lungs with the girls scent. He blinks throws it on the stool, mumbling angrily to himself, and heads to her yard to dispose of some bodies.


	6. Chapter 6

The brown and red blotch stings when you touch it, and aches when you try to ignore it. You’re sitting at the window, watching Sarah and Dillon carry empty boxes and bags of packing trash to the curb. The lab coat is sitting in your lap, your arm was still wet with blood when he gave it to you, and you tried for an hour to get the stains out, but couldn’t. You see Morty getting shoved out of the neighbor’s garage, he nearly falls over, regains his balance, then looks nervously over at your house. He begins to walk towards your front door.

A minute later when you open the door for him he begins sputtering out an apology before you can even say hello. “I I’m so so.sorry about last night I was trying to save a an alien that my grandpa sold a gun to an assasassasin who was going to kill them but I kind of ran over the assassin with the car and I guess those were his friends.” The story sounds incredulous, but you believe it, it’s not like you’ve never seen aliens, not like you weren’t at a party that half the galaxy was invited to just a week ago.

“Morty it’s fine, I’m not dead so no harm done.” You rub the blotchy mark on your arm. “This stings still, but I’ll be live. What was that stuff your grandfather used anyways?”

“I..I..I don’t know, he used it once on me when he shot a hole through my hand but when I asked him what it was he just kind of blew me off.” Morty shoves his hand into his pocket. “Oh uh, grandpa found this while he was cleaning up the aliens…bodies….he asked me to give it to you.” He holds out your lighter.

“Damn I just can’t keep a hold of this lately.” You take it, he flinches when your hand touches his. You start flicking the lighter top open and closed, and fiddling with it in general. “I’d be interested to hear more about this adventure of yours and your grandpa.” You listen to him sputter through an explanation of the adventure, leaning on the door frame. You balance the lighter on the back of your hand, humming and aaahing at various things he says. He goes on for a while about his grandfather’s inventions and space adventures, a few things catch your attention and you ask for clarification, specifically something about a “portal gun”.

“So yeah, that’s what happened, we uh, we go on a lot of crazy adventures and lots of, lots of things happen.” Morty grows quiet, watches you snap your hand back, sending the lighter flying but catching it before it goes anywhere.

You hold it up to your lips. “I’m disappointed Sanchez, you can’t make a bug that doesn’t offset the weighting? You know whatever you hoped to learn by eavesdropping on me you could have just asked me about?” Morty begins to stutter something when his phone rings, as he pulls it out you hold out your hand, raising an eyebrow, he gives it to you wordlessly. You answer the phone without looking at the ID. “So Rick, when should I come over? You seem to want to know some things about me, and I’d very much like to get to know you.” You smirk at Morty as he blushes at your sarcastic flirty tone.

“Uuuurp, give me an hour, I’m in the middle of something.” He sounds more than a little peeved that his bug was discovered so quickly.

“I can’t waaiit, I’ll be sure to wear something nice.” You work the backing off your lighter and see the bug worked into the taser electronics.

“Bring your urp hypothetical ‘schematics’ book, I want to look at them again.”

“Again huh? I don’t recall showing you any of my schematics Rick. I would love to hear how you came to even know that I have a book dedicated to hypotheticals.” You like your privacy, and if this dick head was in your room, was going through your stuff, you were going to be pissed, you felt…violated. You hand Morty his phone, he immediately runs off towards his house without so much as a goodbye, and you slam the door. “Rick I swear to fuck I might just rip your god damn balls off you prick, I don’t know what you were doing in my room but you had no fucking business being in there.” You say through clenched teeth into the lighter just before you tear the bug out and crush it.

-

Rick realized he may have fucked up, the sound of the bug getting crushed was grating on his ears. He was suspicious of her, the way she handled the events of the previous night so calmly, handled being shot so well, it made him think she might have been sent to spy on him, sent to get information on his inventions and activities. He wanted to listen in on her and find out who she was working for, if she was working for anybody that is. But he also was interested in those schematics, if she really was their designer, then she might actually be somebody worth…and he shuddered at the thought… exchanging ideas with. He had worked alone with his science for a long time, and sometimes it was boring not having somebody of a decent level of intelligence to bounce ideas back and forth with. So if she really was just some girl with a big brain who never pursued science as anything more than a hobby, he might have just ruined his chance at being able to…talk…with her. She could provide actual intellectual stimulus that he hasn’t gotten form another perso9n in a long time, and part of him kind of hoped, just a little, that he hadn’t fucked up.

-

Graph paper book under arm, lab coat slung over shoulder, and scowl on face you walk over to the Smith’s garage. When you enter the dim garage the first thing you see is the small speckled stains of your blood on the concrete, then Rick, hunched over his workbench, focused intently on something. You walk up and slam the hypotheticals book on the table next to him.

He jumps and stares at you. “What the hell was that really fucking necessary, you can’t just say hello?!” You see his hand rest in a drawer next to him, but you can’t see what he’s grabbing. He sees his lab coat over your shoulder, reaches an arm out and hooks the collar, pulling it towards him.

“I got some blood on it, and I don’t know how to get that out of clothes, sorry.” You turn slightly to let the coat slide off your shoulder more easily. He shrugs, puts it on, and starts filling the inner pockets with devices on the table. “So, how did you know about my hypotheticals?” You tap the book.

“Honest answer? I uuurp froze time so the kids and I could clean the hourrrpse after the part, for about 6 months, I got bored and went to your house to check out the ‘scheemauuurptics’ your housemate was talking about at the party.” He looks at you, apparently expecting you to not believe him. 

“Makes sense, Sarah and Mark were bitching about shit happening, coffee pot moved out from under the machine, Mark’s pants pulled down, I assume that was you?” You smile, a lot of shit was fucked with, including a few things that you were a little jealous that you didn’t get to be the one to fuck with. “Were you kind enough to change the landing of my fall? Because I was absolutely headed towards the floor.”

“You were headed towards your fucking desk, I just thought I’d save the world from losing a not incredibly stupid brain.” He finishes loading devices into his lab coat, then grabs your book off the table.  
“Oh, well, thank you.” You watch him go through the book, a little nervous, you rarely let people look at your stuff, much less your hypothetical stuff. “I don’t know why you would be interested in that stuff, it’s all rubbish.” 

“Are you kidding? They’re fucking brilliant.” He mutters, too focused on looking over the designs to realize what he’s saying. “Too brilliant...” You stare, it’s strange, having people compliment your work. “Can you actually build this shit though? There’s urrp, there’s designing and then there’s building and testing, no point in one without the other, I suppose. I mean a lot of these are pretty refined, I can see your process, you design it once, then again, jesus how much time did you spend on one ‘invention’?”

You lean on the work bench. “With my normal stuff I’d occasionally test them, but usually I’d abandon them because I don’t have materials, but those, those have never been built in any capacity, the materials……well the materials don’t exist.”

“Actually they do.” He sets the book down and turns to a shelf. “What really caught my eye about that uuurp book is that every material you ‘hypothized’ the existence of, I’ve found, I use most of them regularly in my research.” He starts pulling things off the shelf, brightly colored liquids in vials and strange looking metals. You stare wide eyed, then start backing away.

“I highly doubt you want to help me….you don’t exactly seem like the helpful type so…why the fuck am I here?” You look towards the garage door, but you hear a click, and the garage door starts to descend. When you look back towards Rick his face is dark.

“Who sent you? There’s no way you just happened to predict the existence of these materials, no way you’re smart enough to make designs like this without rigorously testing them.” He’s staring at you, distrust clear on his face.

“Sent me? What the hell are you talking about nobody fucking sent me, my father taught me how to design…taught me how to test things without fully building it so I wouldn’t have to waste money. Everything I make is…basic at best, based around things I already know works…” You back towards the closing garage door, terrified, perhaps more terrified than when an alien was holding a gun to your head, because now the man that you had entrusted your life with was the one who might be about to kill you.

“I really doubt that.” He walks towards you. “People just aren’t that smart, those designs, no way a human could produce schematics as good as yours. And, yes, your designs work, I know because I’ve built more than half of them, your stuff isn’t as original as you urp think. Your stuff would work if you built it, hell your stuff would change the world if you built them, but did you really think you could trick me? Make me think you were just some smart neighbor? Get my attention, come in here, and steal all my work for whoever hired you?” You realize this is a man who doesn’t trust anybody, and you should have just stayed the hell away from him. Your back hits the closed garage door, you try to think of a way out of this, or at least a way to convince him of the truth. That you are just, that smart, that good, and that it was just a coincidence that you ended up as his neighbor.


	7. Chapter 7

The room you’re in is cold, walls lined with technology you can’t even fathom the use of, giant tubes filled with things you don’t want to think about. You’re scared, petrified, and intrigued. You aren’t bound to the chair you’re sitting in, but you know you’d be endangering yourself if you tried to get up. Rick had led you at blaster point to this subterranean lair of his. He’s looking through devices now, the blaster put away, occasionally glancing at you. You’ve determined that Rick Sanchez is a classic case of “super intelligence turned high level paranoia.” Several times you see him reach for some devices, reconsider, and pull back his hand, these looks incredibly…..painful. It’s as if he’s not sure if he wants to hurt you, part of him thinking you’re not who you say you are, the other part telling him he’s fucking up.

Rick takes a deep drink form his flask, and the interrogating begins. Question after question, who are you working for, what projects are you after. He doesn’t like your answers. But you see something in his eyes, he knows, he knows he’s being paranoid, but he doesn’t want to take the risk. He doesn’t want to risk what will happen if he’s wrong, but he knows in his black heart that you’re telling the truth.

When there is a while of silence, no more questions, when he’s leaning against a wall looking away from you, you open your mouth cautiously. “You believe me…you want what I’m saying to be true.” His head snaps towards you, stares. “But you’re scared, you know exactly what will happen if you’re wrong about me. Maybe, maybe the idea of me being ‘smart’ is ludicrous, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. If somebody as smart you can exist, is it so impossible to believe that somebody as sm…nearly… as smart as you could end up existing?” He doesn’t say anything, his face turns to a scowl, and he grabs the blaster again. “You aren’t going to hurt me.” You stare down its barrel. “You want me to not hate you when all of this is said and done.” Somehow, despite all of this, you don’t hate him, you are scared of him, but you don’t hate him yet.

“Why would I give a flaming uuurp shit what you think of me?” Rick stalks towards you.

You lean back slightly as he gets close. “Because….” You’re words catch in your throat as the blaster charges. The man who once allowed you the chance to save yourself from death rather than take the easy way and let you die, is the one holding a gun ready to kill you. “I… interest you…” Hands twitching, you stand up to meet him, your heart pounding. “Maybe, just…maybe… you think I’m smart enough to make your shit hole of a life just a touch more bearable.” You put your hand on the blaster. You watch the emotions that pass through his eyes, watch his facial muscles relax. You could drown yourself in those eyes, wait what? “Hell maybe…you think I could learn from you and, you don’t…don’t want that potential wasted.”

“I-I’m not a fucking teacher.” He grows, halfheartedly. He lets you take the blaster, something flickers in his eyes. 

“Maybe it’s because I’ve got a nice ass then. I’ve got brains and bea…” You stop yourself half way through the sentence, you aren’t generally the most secure in your looks. He just stares at you, half open mouthed, he’s trying to process everything you and everything he knows about you. Rick stumbles past you, and sits, slumps in the chair you were in. Perhaps you could run now but, stupidly, you stay.

“If you meant what you said about my designs, that they were…good… could you maybe…help me make them better… I miss… building things…” You set the blaster aside and watch him.

“They aren’t worth my time, I’ve got my own research to work on.” He’s drinking from his flask again. Your heart drops a little, it hurts. He cringes when he sees the disappointment on your face.

“Yeah…you’re…you’re right.” You turn to the exit.

Just as you’re nearly out Rick’s voice calls out to you, it’s so much softer and kinder than you expect. “Pick something, I’ll be up in a minute… and make it a good one.”  
-  
Hours and hours later, you are sitting, pieces of electronics in your hands, watching Rick explain the properties of plutonic quartz. Deft hands break down and reassemble a device of his, showing you how the material came into play. What the different parts did and why, he explains it so well, you had gotten used to people trying to dumb things down for you when they think you won’t understand it. But he talks to you almost as if you’re an equal, when you ask a question he…smiles, and answers it. You realize that it’s been a long time since this guy has been able to talk to somebody that could even remotely understand his work. You wonder how a drunk man’s hands can be so steady, wonder what else they’re capable of. 

When you had shown him the design you picked, his eyes lit up, but he betrayed excitement in no other expression. He gathered up the materials you would need and dropped them in front of you. As you built while he explained the alien materials like plutonic quartz, he occasionally reached over and pointed at something on your schematics, told you how you could do it better. A few times he took the materials from you, showed you how to properly assemble the part you were working on.

“If you use that wire it’s going to blow up in your hand, you need one that can handle a higher…” He turns to a shelf and starts muttering. You take a few moments to let your eyes traverse his body while his back is turned, then shake your head cause what the hell are you doing. “Here these are made of solonite, it’ll conduct better without overheating.” He turns to you with a few thick wires. You think he might have been lying about not being a teacher, there’s something about this that seems to come naturally to him. Maybe there was a time when he had some hope for the future of humanity, and at least tried to pass his knowledge along.

“Interesting, can it…?” You turn to the door into the house as it opens, going quiet.

“Hey dad dinner’s ready, I made…uhm.” Beth sees you, tries you work out why you’re here. You just wave awkwardly, then take the wires from Rick’s hand.

“Alright I’m coming. Oh so it turns out the neighbor girl here isn’t an idiot and I thought I’d help her with some of her urp projects. You might be seeing her in here a lot.” He puts away the device he was using for demonstration. You think about what he said ‘a lot’ that sounds like… fun.

“That’s nice, would you like me to set another place at the table there’s plenty.” Beth smiles, thank god she likes you otherwise this would be weird. 

“No that’s alright but thanks.” You start trying to clean up the materials. “Sarah should be waking up right about now and she and I have to record shit before she heads to work.

Rick helps with putting away materials. “I actually..urp I never caught what you guys are doing over in that house.”

“They tried to tell you when they came over to meet us but you blew them off, remember dad?” Beth leans on the door frame.

“Yeah, that did happen.” You smirk. “We’re making video games, nothing too big, but Mark and I are good enough to be able to handle a lot more than the average team our size. Dillon handles the writing and narrations, and Sarah is our audio tech basically.” You start to head out once everything is cleaned up. “Catch ya later old man, I’m looking forward to getting back to building shit.”

“Yeah yeah,” Rick waves you off dismissively, and goes inside.

A knot in your chest releases once he’s out of sight.


	8. Chapter 8

You saw Rick leave in his space car the morning after the… interrogation… and lesson. You were a little disappointed, thought maybe you would be able to get more work done, learn some more about non-earth materials, or something. But it looked like he had other plans, so you spend the weekend working on your actual “job”. Come Monday when you saw the space car back in the driveway you were aching for something to do that wasn’t programming. As you walk over to the Smith’s house, you keep an eye out for Jerry out weed whacking, not wanting to run into him. You stop for a breath of fresh air, then look into the garage. You’re heart immediately drops.  
-  
When Rick finally woke up, his head pounding, his mouth dry, he could hear the metallic squeak of a screw driver at work. ‘Oh god am I sober? Is this hell? Is this what hell is? Being sober?’ Were his thoughts as he realized that despite the headache there was a clarity in his mind he hadn’t known for a long time. Clarity that summoned memories and thoughts he had tried to suppress with alcohol. Groaning, he tried to lift his head, and elected immediately to abandon the attempt.

The sound of the screwdriver stopped. “Finally awake?” His heart jumps at the sound of the brilliant neighbor girl. Without alcohol to fuel his paranoia and cynicism, that becomes the applied adjective, brilliant. He had never met somebody with intelligence that could hold a candle to his own. He wanted to nurture that mind, among other, less noble things. When he finally looked up, first he saw the dismantled remains of machine with which he had tried to take his life with, a stupid idea, he realized now. Then he saw her, hunched over in a folding chair, looking closely at the device he had been helping her build. Her face is scrunched in high level concentration, scrutinizing her handiwork. There was something about it that he liked, the level of focus she put into her work, the joy deep in her eyes as she built. She had a love for science, engineering, that he identified with, and he wondered who had squashed her passion.

“How long…” his words where interrupted by a hacking cough. It made everything hurt, and he realized maybe he was getting too old for partying with an entire species.  
-  
You put down the device. “I’ve been here about…two hours, took me a while to take that apart.” You grab one of the glasses of water Beth had brought out earlier, after you had ‘explained’ that he had just passed out while helping you work, and you didn’t feel like stopping. “I’m not going to ask why you tried to do… that, it’s your business…” he takes the glass, drinks the water grimacing.

“Good it’s none of your… right… right.” Rick leans forward, arms folded on the table.

“Just don’t do it again… I’d hate to…” You bite your lip, wanting to say you’d hate to never hear his voice again. “I’d hate to lose out on a decent conversation partner, it’s so boring having to dumb myself down for other people.”

Rick laughs a short, sharp laugh. “I think I know the feeling, don’t worry. I won’t try anything like that again. ”You smile, somehow this is comforting. Returning to work on your device, Rick starts searching the pockets of his lab coat until he comes up with a flask. He grumbles something about it being empty, then stands up and goes inside.

You return your focus to your work, he’s gone for quite a while, eventually Summer wanders in. “Hey grandpa can you help me…” She raises an eyebrow at you. “Hi… so uh Grandpa Rick doesn’t like people being in his lab so you should like…go…” Aaaah teenagers, so judgy judgy. 

“Lay o-off Summer, I’m helping her with some science.” Rick returns carrying a box. “Because unlike some pains in my ass she actually shows an interest and ability in with the stuff.”

“I’m interested in science!” Summer protests. “Listen grandpa I’m trying out a programming elective at school but I don’t understand the homework could you help…”

“No.” Rick says firmly as he carries the box over to you, setting it down on the table. “I’m busy. Her one of these bulbs thought be able to be used for the neutron converter.”

“Thanks Rick.” You look over at Summer. “I think I’ve got a handle of things, you should help her out.”

“I shooooould but I don’t want to.” He sits down, pulls a bottle out of the box.

You smile at the girl. “Well I could help you then.”

“Yeah, uh, this stiff is really hard I don’t think…” She looks at her grandfather.

“I majored in computer science and graduated top of my department, I think I can handle high school elective programming homework.” You dig through the box of bulbs.

“She, she’s got you there Summer, you can’t go assuming people don’t know urp shit.” Rick says, a little sarcastically.

“Okay yeah I guess you can help but aren’t you…” She first looks at the parts scattered on the table, then looks at Rick and sees the way he’s trying to hide how he’s looking at you. “…in the middle of something?”

You look over at Rick, his eyes are more bloodshot than usual. “I think your grandfather is a little tired at the moment, I’d be happy to help you while he rests up.” He doesn’t protest, just glares at you for a moment before turning his chair to face another part of the workspace so he can’t look at you. You stand and follow Summer into the house.  
-  
After over an hour of tutoring the girl you slip back into the garage, rubbing your temple. The girl is smart, but a far cry from intelligent. “Rick I need you to say something genius, anything please my brain hurts so much.” You mumble.

“W-What?” He is quickly fumbling to move things around on his desk, won’t face you or look at you. “Well how…urp… about…” He spends a full minute listing off the various properties of radioactive materials and how they aren’t being fully utilized by the scientific community.

“Fuuuuuck yeeees.” You groan, sitting in your chair again and leaning back. He looks at you and quirks an eyebrow. You realize immediately how…erotic… what you just said was. “You’re granddaughter is smart but I couldn’t get her to understand what a fuckign bool variable is.” You mutter. 

“You are really easy t-to urp please.” He smirks. You pick a small wrech off the desk and throw it at him. “Hey! N-no need for that now.” 

“Okay let’s just get back to work.” You pick up the device and reach for the wrench… you just threw. “Uhm…could I… get that back now?”


End file.
